Rushing the Court

[GGT]

Can everyone here agree on 1 thing....Rushing the court in college hoops has gotten out of hand.

ESPN's Rick Reilly wrote an awsome article about it today on ESPN.com.  I don't think you can argue with any of his rules:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4961547
When NOT to rush the court:

This has got to stop. Therefore, here are the Ironclad and Unbreakable Rushing-the-Court Rules. From now on, you can NOT rush the court if …

• You've won an NCAA title in the past 20 years.

• You've been in the Final Four in the past five years.

• The team you just beat is not in the top three.

• Or is ranked within 15 rungs of you. (Somebody do the math for Wake.)

• Or is really a football school. This includes Florida, Texas and Ohio State. Get over it.

• You've beaten this same team in the past five years.

• You won the stupid game by more than 10 points. There is no such thing as a PRTC (Premeditated Rush The Court.)

• You're a university and you just beat a college.

• Coach K comes to your coach's clinic.

• You have a dead-mortal-lock lottery pick on your team.

• Your team has appeared in a recent "One Shining Moment."

The funniest part of the article is when he lays down the rules for when it is OK to rush the court:

Now we understand here at the Court of Court Rushing that there are occasionally unusual circumstances. Therefore, here are the Official Amendments to the Ironclad and Unbendable Rushing-the-Court Rules. You can rush the court if:

• Your arena is closing down forever after the game. That will happen this week at Freedom Hall in Louisville and Mac Court in Oregon. Fine. Dig up the boards, too. Take the chairs. Knock yourselves out.


• Something stupidly wonderful happens, like a 90-foot David Blaine Special goes in or an air ball bounces off the ref's head to win your conference. Fine.


• You are Wisconsin-Milwaukee and you are 0-37 against your cross-city rival Marquette. When you win you should rush the court, then City Hall, then the Miller factory.


• It's the first time you've beaten your archrival in 10 years or more, and one of the following: (1) they still have your goat, (2) they stole and painted your best physics professor, or (3) they're going to end up making PILES more cash than you.


• Jihadists have kidnapped your power forward and are holding him captive near the key.

So Stucknut Nation....When is it ok to rush the court....

[Saluki_Love]

"We've never rushed the court here. We expect to win. That's our mentality." Pitt men's head basketball coach Jamie Dixon on Jim Rome is Burning.

[Jeff in MD]

Rack Rick Reilly, funny stuff.

I couldn't agree with his take on that more. Tearing down the goalposts after a "big" football win thinks rushing the court is overplayed. The only time it's appropriate to rush the court is a truly monumental, upset win. Winning your conference tourney & securing a trip to the NCAA's, getting to the Final 4, & winning a national championship would be reasons to rush the court also, but of course none of those take place on homecourts anyway (or very rarely). Otherwise the fans need to stay in their f*ckin seats, it's ridiculous.

[John in The Cuse]

If you don't beat the #1 team in the nation stay off the f*cking court... 

[Jeff in Syracuse]

It's been out of hand for 10 years.  I mean, Illinois rushes the court after beating Minnesota.  MINNE-FREAKING-SOTA?  A fringe bubble team?  Come on now.

I'm not saying you have to beat #1 to rush the court, but if it's not the #1 team, it must be a) that you're a major underdog, b) a program down for some time that got that first big win on the road back, and the opponent at least should be ranked in the top 15 or so.

Any conference tourney final win on your home court is court storming worthy.  These usually involve small schools and these are essentially their national title games.

[batterynotincluded]

If you don't beat the #1 team in the nation stay off the f*cking court... 

If you are outside of the top 25, then it would be ok, but just beating the #1 team in the nation shouldn't be reason enough, the win needs to be way bigger than 10 beating 1.